Psychologists Embrace Open Science

For much of the last decade, psychologists have been debating whether the field faces a replication crisis. In 2015, a widely publicized attempt to replicate 100 studies from three top social and cognitive psychology journals was able to reproduce the results of less than 40 percent of them (Science, Vol. 349, No. 6251). Other replication studies have cast doubt on once-established ideas, including ego depletion and behavioral priming.

"The biggest challenge is that people want to change their research practices, but open science practices are harder and slower, and researchers worry about whether systems will reward these harder and slower practices," says Simine Vazire, PhD, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis. For example, preregistering a study means that researchers must decide on all research and analysis methods, and write them up in detail, before beginning the study. Sharing data might involve learning to use new software that allows it. "We want to make sure that the incentives line up," Vazire says.